“Rather than taking steps to improve Chicago city pensions, Springfield lawmakers are pushing them $11.1 billion deeper into the hole,” reports the Illinois Policy Institute:
In the final days of session, Illinois lawmakers approved House Bill 3657, a pension “sweetener” for police and firefighter employees under Tier 2 pensions that would swell the city’s already staggering retirement debt. In the first year, it would cost $52 million to implement. By 2055, it would add $11.1 billion in accrued liabilities, according to city estimates.
Equable’s annual public pensions report shows seven of the nation’s 10 worst-funded local pensions are in Chicago. Chicago firefighters are in last place. Chicago Police are in third-to-last place. Both plans have about 25 cents of every dollar promised to workers.
Progressive Illinois has much higher taxes than neighboring Indiana, whose taxes are $4,050 less per household. Yet conservative Indiana provides better roads (it ranks #2 in road quality, compared to Illinois being only #30), and Indiana processes people’s tax returns much faster and more accurately than Illinois does, and has a better criminal justice system. Illinois should be able to do better than Indiana, because it is much more fortunate than Indiana (Illinois contains wealthy Chicago suburbs that generate lots of tax revenue. Indiana lacks similarly populous wealthy areas to finance it.)
